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Topic: Bringing her back to life..... (Read 5570 times)

My 2008 Rubi has about 100K on her, 50K on the clock, and another 50K + behind the MH. All told that was a bunch of outside time, and after fulltiming for 5 years, she was outside constantly.

The fenders and bumpers took a beating from the sun, and the wipe on products worked for about 3 days before fading out. Then I read about some stuff in Popular Mechanics mag that they rated very well. It was not a paint, but a "plastic resurfacer" from Eastwood. It was pricey, about $30 a can plus shipping, but I thought I would give it a try.

You scrub the plastic down with a little grease cutting detergent and rinse with water. Let dry and tape off the target parts like you would any paint job. Then just spray. 3 or 4 light coats works best, letting it sit 10 to 15 minutes between coats.

That's it. With one can I did all four fenders, and according to the company it is susposed to last at least 7 years without fading. That part of the test I will know in a while. Here are a few pics of the before and after.

I didn't do the front bumper as I am planning a new bumper in the near future ($$$$).

I've tried plastic reviving products before on other vehicles and found they all broke down after a few weeks or months, don't want to be negative here but odds are yours will probably follow the same track. An excellent solution that will last for years is to paint the plastic. Clean the part, spray it with a special plastic adhesion promoter (available at most auto parts stores), then topcoat with either a gloss or semi gloss black rattle-can spray enamel.

Or you can run carbon fiber or aluminum fenders. I have GenRight aluminum fenders front and rear on my LJ - they take a lot of abuse and need a light sanding to bring back to new condition (except for the rock hits .)

Subscribed. I too would be interested to see how the long term durability is.

Also a question, could you reply on how it reacts to mud. The stock fenders even after using products like Mother's Back to Black or 303 Aerospace when they get little blobs of mud on them and then wash the Jeep, you can see where the mud was. It almost appears as though when the mud sits on the fenders it draws the pigment right out of the plastic.

I would like to hear and/or see how this product holds up to that if you don't mind.

Absolutely, that is my big question as well. Especially that red muck that you collect in some areas of Moab. They swear on their web site that they tested it equal to 7 years of sun exposure without fading. It is supposed to "bond" with the plastic, so we shall see in short order. I will post up what my results are.

Hey, thanks for the prompt. After extensive testing through dirt, clay, mud and muck, I must say that the new black on the fenders has held up remarkably well. It has also been behind the MH since April getting the heat from the rig, and whatever splashed up on them from the tires. It has also been abused a bit as washing is kind of a luxury when constantly on the road, so dirt and dust will cover them for weeks at a time without washing them off.

That and I am sure that I have picked up a few more dings in the fenders on the road, but since the product penetrates the surfaces there are no light spots showing through. So I would have to give the product the thumbs up for performing as advertised.

This is a follow up to my follow up. It has now been about 21 months since my application of the Eastwood product. And it still looks good. I just washed the Jeep up yesterday with a power washer here in Texas. All four fenders are still holding up nicely, and even with some new dings from road debris. The new rear stock bumper that I had put on at about the time I did the fenders is graying out, but the fenders still look good.

Any updates on how this has held up for you? I want to use this for the faded plastic trim on my Corvette.This might be one of the only real world and unbiased long term durability tests of the eastwood resurfacer spray on the net! Like John mentioned, it's better than Consumer Report!

Yep, so far the product has been good to their word. It is still black and is holding up well. And last year we were on the road for 9 months, so no garage protection for it either. So at just over the 2 year mark, I can still recommend this product.

And one other thing to note, due to the heat that come out of the back of my pusher, I have had to replace the "Rubicon" hood decals on the Jeep yet again (3rd set since new). I pulled the Jeep just over 10,000 miles last year behind the MH, but the fenders are still looking good.

Yep, so far the product has been good to their word. It is still black and is holding up well. And last year we were on the road for 9 months, so no garage protection for it either. So at just over the 2 year mark, I can still recommend this product.

And one other thing to note, due to the heat that come out of the back of my pusher, I have had to replace the "Rubicon" hood decals on the Jeep yet again (3rd set since new). I pulled the Jeep just over 10,000 miles last year behind the MH, but the fenders are still looking good.

That's awesome! You sold it for me. I'm going to buy some tonight. Thanks for keeping this updated.

I just thought of this post and thought I would give it one last review (I traded the Rubicon in about 6 weeks ago). So after about 38,000 miles driven and another 30,000 being pulled behind the RV the fenders still looked good. Not as jet black as new, but still black and didn't require any other "dressing" put on them when the Jeep was washed.

It looked good enough that when I took it in to the dealer that I bought the 2018 from, they offered on it without driving it and only checked the odometer. And I got a pretty good price for it. You know a dealer doesn't want to do too much of anything to resell a vehicle.

So all in all the Eastwood product worked as claimed. Even giving it the torture test I did for over 3 years.